Bees, Hives, Swarms, and Everything under the Sun

The Creek Runs Through It

June 23, 2013…The walk into the woods starts here. The creek usually flows under a wooden plank. For several months, the water has not been flowing, probably due to 2013 being the lowest rainfall on record. To be precise, the water HAS been flowing, but not where you can see it. Close to the point where the path crosses the creek, the creek dives underground.

Looking through the skunk cabbage, a small pool of water can be seen a short distance upstream before the water disappears underground.

June 23, 2013…The water flows to here. It’s weird, you can hear the water flowing, but you can’t see where it goes.

February 17, 2014…After a couple of weeks of on again, off again heavy periods of rain, the ground is saturated and the water is flowing. It’s been over a year. Skunk cabbage is just poking up.

If the housing market picks up significantly, I’m sure that area will be logged and built. I know the owner. He’s not some large out-of-state corporation. He’s a family man with a lumber yard in town. We see him and his wife on our morning walk. If he builds it provides many jobs and income for the city. The creek and trees will disappear. At least I’ve got video to remember it by.

I was just thinking of the water. There have been very heavy rains in Europe and a lot of houses have been flooded as they have been built without consideration of heavy rainfall. The climate can have long cycles and people have short memories.

Thank you for your reference to my post about karst land forms and creeks disappearing underground. It is amazing to me that much of our water runs underground only to resurface at some point, sometimes miles away,.

Ever since I read your post of disappearing creeks in May of 2013, I had in mind that I would write about this little disappearing creek. I had to wait for the water to flow. Thanks for writing about it and including those beautiful illustrations.